Moved!

Settled at last.
To be finally settled and not totally living in transition feels amazing. To be sure, I have not totally unpacked yet, we still have plenty of boxes and home school shelves waiting for me, and yes we are still eating out more than eating in, until we rebuild our pantry and fridge with food. But still, there is something to be said for having mirrors and paintings on the wall and clothes hung up in the closets. It is starting to feel like home. Home. Strange for me even to say. I had grown so fond of my “home” in Arkansas, I would have never dreamed calling a rental is some random city in Oklahoma “home”. But I guess it is true what they say, home is where your heart is. Or where Husband and children are. :)
We just got Internet the other day so I am spending a lot of time catching up on emails and facebook bills. I can’t wait to have a free moment soon tonight to catch up on blog world. You all inspire me to be better, with how I have been acting lately, I could use it!
Pictures to come! This time I wont promise, but I will say that I have a distinct feeling I will be getting a camera for Christmas :)
I will be back soon with lots of posts on all God is teaching me lately. (there have been some hard personal discoveries that God is weeding out of me. When it is a little less painful I will write all about it.)

Pictures here, pictures everywhere.

Here are some pictures from the road trip. It was long and hard, but we had a lot of fun. I always do on roadtrips. The glory of God shines through His creation, and His creation can truly be seen driving across this great country. Anyhow, enjoy! Right like that's really all you wanted for Christmas, was pictures from my roadtrip, ha ha ha.

home for now.

I am home from my trip and the first thing I have to do is say......I lied. OK well actually I didn't lie, I mis-spoke. You see I thought I would have TONS of pictures for you when I got back, but actually I have none, since my husband wanted to keep the camera at home, and my dad only let me take pictures in the car. SOOOOOOOO when my dad lets me borrow his camera so I can download the pictures, then I will have pictures for you. Until then please forgive me for saying "I will post TONS of pictures as soon as I get back!". My bad.

So I am home from my trip, but not for long since we are moving on Monday. Never mind that this is the third time we have said we are moving. It is kind of frustrating to think you are going to move mid-November, box up your stuff, have your hubby quit his current job, find a rental, sign a lease agreement in a new state, turn on utilities and internet, ONLY to find out you cant actually move till late November, only to find out you can't move till December, only to find out that you don't know when they will pay you to move so you finally make the decision to pay the hundreds of dollars to move yourselves just to be over the craziness! Oh look there I go venting and complaining again.......but hey, that's what the blog is for right? No? OK well maybe not, but I am incapable of typing anything else. I am surrounded by boxes, so moving seems to stay heavy on my mind.

Now I am off to read all your wonderful, uplifting, holiday cheer spreading, hilarious blogs! Just disregard mine and come back in a week, I am sure I will be a more gracious blog host :)

California Dreamin

I am in California visiting family on a last minute (truly only knew 48 hours before I left) Thanksgiving visit. Things are going so badly with our move and waiting for orders so that we CAN move, that my husband told me and the kids to go visit my family because he felt so bad. Gotta love that guy! So, even though I am missing my hubby, and the drive was two days and relentless, I am loving being here in California. I will update you all soon with TONS of pictures when I get back. xoxoxo

(p.s. Celee I drove right past your area and was tempted to stop and say hi. But my dad, who was riding with us, said no :( Maybe I will honk on my way home really loud and you will know its me)

What Blog?

Hey all, where have you been??? I miss you all so much. Blog world is funny, kind, inspiring, and gives all sorts of great advice, but you must have one magic ingredient.....TIME. Lately, time is sort of a funny thing. Getting ready for this move (I move Monday), I have seen "time" shift in crazy ways. Gone are the days of routine. Now the days are a crazy mix of chaotic non-stop "to-do" lists, and then times of completely having nothing to do. However, as usual, God has taught me much during these times (as with all times). I have seen that when I am not soooo busy, I am loving just taking time to spend with my husband (who is not working currently) and kids. Just drinking them in ya know? We are having a good time, even in the midst of the stress. I am not saying we have not had stressful days, because we have (My friend Adena, can attest to that)!
However I love watching God bring us closer together, even through the really hard stuff. Anything really stressful like, being unemployed, planning a move, dealing with family drama, and trying to sell a house, causes my hubby and I to get a little bit crazy irritable. I wish we could claim we really had this whole marriage thing figured out, we don't. But I do know we serve a gracious God who delivers us from the paths of selfishness and worry that we put ourselves on, and puts us back on the "better" road, for His sake and ours. To sum it up, things have been crazy over here, but God is faithful. I miss bloggy world like you would not believe, but I just don't have the time. Hopefully I will hear from you all very very soon! xoxoxox
Val

fall

Here are some pictures of the kiddos playing in the leaves this fall. Funny how they decided to rake them. Instead of putting them in a big pile like most kids, they put them in a circle and sat in the middle for hours doing little things. I thought it was cute, but the neighbors and friends called it our wicca circle.....yikes!

Our perfect family evening

I have to admit, I'm an old fuddy duddy sometimes. I struggle with my age. I am 28 but often times feel as though I am well into my forties.I lived a crazy life for a while there as a teen. I won't go into the extreme or the horribly personal, but mostly it was bad. From 16 to 19, I lived as the young man lived in the story of the prodigal son. I squandered all I had, I smoked, I drank, partied, tattooed and pierced myself (often), and finally had something happen to me that brought me to my knees. Luckily, that's exactly where GOD is! To say the least I was saved, to say more, I was changed and so was my entire life. It was not extremely fast. It was slow, just me and God taking it one step at a time. Each time He whispered into my ear, "don't you think it's time to give this up Valerie?" I quit smoking at 19 and quit drinking at 20, just shy of the legal age to start. Flash forward 8 years and now this is what I consider a GREAT time.
Doing a puzzle with my two sweet kids and the hubby. I love those nights. The nights where nobody is on the computer, and everyone just want's to sit and be together. I wish I could say this happens every night. It does not. My hubby and I have bad habits of selfishness and often (prepare yourselves!) even laziness when it comes to really good quality time together. I think its because we homeschool we feel we are "around" each other all the time. Which is true, but quantity time is not a replacement for Quality. So at the end of the day it's true, this tattooed wild child, now loves nothing more than just being together with my family, knowing God is there with us, loving us, and willing us to love each other.